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Reflecting
Hawthorne's own distrust of Emerson's idealism, the characters in the story are confused by the Giant Transcendentalist as he "shouted after us, but in so strange a phraseology that we knew not what he meant, nor whether to be encouraged or affrighted". Hawthorne also uses the story to satirize and criticize modern business,
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At the end of their journey, they exit the train and prepare to board a ferry-boat that will cross the river to the
Celestial City. Mr. Smooth-it-away, however, does not accompany the narrator, who seems surprised. Mr. Smooth-it-away admits that he never intended to go to the Celestial City and only
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In this story, told in the first person, the narrator undertakes a journey from the city of
Destruction to the Celestial City. The journey, taken by the narrator due to curiosity and free time, can now be made by train instead of on foot. He immediately meets a fellow traveler, Mr. Smooth-it-away, a
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Mellow referred to "The
Celestial Railroad" as "what must be considered his most popular and enduring allegorical fable". Hawthorne seemed pleased to have offended some of the clergy he knew personally when, not long after the story was published, he wrote to Sophia Peabody that an acquaintance of
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In addition to this underlying view, however, he states "we were rushing by the place where
Christian's burden fell from his shoulders at the sight of the Cross... for our burdens were rich in many things esteemed precious throughout the world." The story ends with the traveler's relief that what
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As a satire, the story aims mostly at the transcendentalists and the apparent moral complacency of their teachings. Hawthorne particularly takes issue with their inability to be understood; a character in the story called Giant
Transcendentalist is described as "a heap of fog and duskiness".
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joined the narrator for his "pleasant company". Then, laughing, smoke comes out of his mouth and nostrils and flames dart out of his eyes as he reveals his true form as an "impudent fiend". The narrator then wakes up and realizes his journey has been a dream.
149:. Evangelist, who first directs Christian on his journey, is updated to a worker at the train station's ticket office. Apollyon, leader of the city of Destruction who fights a battle with Christian in the Valley of Humiliation, has become chief conductor.
170:, re-reading Hawthorne's writings after his death, referred to a scene in "The Celestial Railroad" where citizens in Vanity Fair are ambivalent about their neighbors' deaths, all except the narrator: "Nothing can be finer than this".
118:"The Celestial Railroad" expresses Hawthorne's sardonic view of religious movements of his day. He may have been directly attacking some of the newer ideas popular at the time, including
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his treated him coldly: "I suspect the
Celestial Rail-road must have given him a pique; and if so, I shall feel as if Providence had sufficiently rewarded me for that pious labor".
45:. Where Bunyan's tale portrays a Christian's spiritual "journey" through life, Hawthorne's satirizes many contemporary religious practices and philosophies, including
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native of
Destruction, who seems to know all about the Celestial City, despite having never been there before. Their train passes by several landmarks, including the
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in 1843, along with several other stories that year, including "The New Adam and Eve", "
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Transcendental
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on Hawthorne's story, expanding on his earlier piece for solo piano, also entitled
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tale, Hawthorne adopts the style and content of the seventeenth-century allegory
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The Fate of Transcendentalism: Secularity, Materiality, and Human Flourishing
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called the happiest years of his life, immediately following his marriage to
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Middleton, William D., George M. Smerk, and Robert L. Diehl.
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Hawthorne's story makes several references to the original
348:. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 2017: 96.
308:. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007: 594.
274:. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2019.
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types, aggressive promoters, and the railroad itself.
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328:. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997: 3.
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401:. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980: 583.
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422:Full text
110:in 1846.
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